Erie Insurance rezoning request subject of public meeting

City Council will host the meeting Wednesday during its regular meeting in the Bagnoni Council Chambers at City Hall. The request involves nearly 12 acres of property on the city's east side.

Kevin Flowers @ETNFlowers

Erie Insurance wants the city to sign off one of the largest rezoning request in the city of Erie's history, nearly 12 acres of properties that the Fortune 500 company owns on the city's east side.

That request will be the subject of a public hearing before Erie City Council on Wednesday night.

City Council will host the meeting at 8 p.m., during its regular meeting in the Bagnoni Council Chambers at City Hall, 626 State St. Erie Insurance, which has no immediate plans for the properties, wants the parcels rezoned as residential with limited business.

All of the properties are located between East Fourth and East Seventh streets, from Holland Street to Parade Street, and they are all classified as medium-density residential, said Matthew Puz, the city's zoning officer.

The rezoning is necessary because businesses and other "commercial activity" is prohibited on those properties under city zoning rules, Puz said.

"We already own the majority of the land and we need it rezoned for potential future use," Knapp said. "Nothing further to share with regard to exact plans right now."

In recent years, Erie Insurance has increased its footprint by purchasing a number of properties to the east of its headquarters on Perry Square. The company has also made various other neighborhood improvements in the area.

The company broke ground in March on a $135 million, seven-story building adjacent to the Erie Insurance Heritage Center on East Sixth Street. That project is expected to take roughly three years to complete.

"Erie Insurance has been trying to improve the neighborhood," Brennan said. "I think this makes sense."

Puz said the Erie Insurance rezoning request is "slightly larger" than the 10 acres of land the city agreed to rezone in 2012 for the transit agency's multimillion-dollar expansion. The city also agreed to close portions of German, East 14th, East 15th and Division streets to accommodate that project.

The largest such request in the city's history came in 2013, when a 38-acre property near East 38th Street and McClelland Avenue was rezoned.

Council's regular meeting on Wednesday begins at 7:30 p.m.

Kevin Flowers can be reached at 870-1693 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNflowers.